Video: Romney pushes minority voter outreach

>>> could it be the next step of mitt romney 's presidential campaign ? twice this week he reached out to minority voters on wednesday. he spoke to hispanic business leaders. he made that stop in west philadelphia . the mayor of philly was not happy saying he did not know why romney was even there.

>> i don't know that was not-day experience in the heart of west philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the united states of america .

>> politico reports, quote, it was one of romney 's first ventures on the campaign trail into inner city america. after months of campaigning in the mostly suburban and rural areas that were the focus of primary contests, philadelphia is heavily democratic turf. education is more central political ground for the presumptive republican nominee. joining me now, syndicated columnist. it was his first stop in the inner city . it is the headline, the push for african-american vote betters you the l.a. times believes this is more about moderate suburban people and not african-american voters.

>> well, i think it's both. actually, he has to pay attention to the african-american vote. only in the sense of saying or at least showing, i can be broader than just talking to suburb i can suburbia and the constituency. if i'm going to be the president of all the people then i have to talk to urban america, too. and of course, all roads lead back to african- americans and to an extent, latino voters. especially african-american voters. so i think it is part of the broadening our image of mitt romney . and then the second thing is, look where he chose and look what he chose. not only to speak but speak on. education. it was very smart in this sense. what he is thinking is school vouchers , chart he schools. that does touch a nerve among many african- americans . so why not essentially talk about issues that do in fact have some resonance with african- americans and talk about it in the venue where he is guaranteed to get maximum exposure . whether good, whether bad, it doesn't matter. at the end of the day he gets the exposure.

>> many have noted when he spoke before the latino business leaders which by the way, the registered voters in this new " wall street journal " poll. 61%. obama, 27%. romney . he did not talk about immigration. he did not talk about the dream act or even those infamous remarks he made regarding self-deportation that would criticize for members of his own party. that he also chose to talk about education there as well.

>> well, that's important. two things, number one, education. here we go again. chart he school, vouchers. remember, these are things very sensitive among african- americans and latinos simply because they think, and correctly so in many areas, that public school are failing their children. so it touches a nerve. the second thing, too, remember, business. that's very important. especially among hispanics and african americans , too. remember, that strikes to the heart of something else. romney 's mantra is jobs and the economy. why not talk about business and education and on top of that, african- americans and latinos. that's an audience. so it is a perk fit.

>> let me play a clip of an exchange that governor romney had with a teacher in philadelphia regarding class size.

>> i can't think of any teacher. mr. bennett would you want more kids in your classroom?

>> no.

>> it's large enough. it is too large.

>> how many students do you have?

>> it varies between classes. but anywhere from 23 to 28?

>> that's just a snippet there. but the heart of conversation was that mitt romney 's citing stats that show class size don't matter. he was countered by another teacher who said there's other research that says class size in fact does. there he is in this roundtable in a setting that we've not, and obviously factually not seen him in at least cynic he has been running for president this time.

>> and the other thing, too, even beyond that. he was challenged, too. so he picked a very comfortable venue. he picked a very comfortable, what he thought was an audience. and he picked a very comfortable sub, too. which essentially once nerve among many african- americans . he was about class size and other thing, too, he was challenged on. at the same time, tamron, there was still skepticism, deep skepticism among the audience that essentially was a very, you would think, romney friendly audience if there would ever be a romney friendly audience among african- americans .

>> thank you for your time. i greatly appreciate it. right

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